Boris Johnson can be the nation’s fatbuster-in-chief

As the PM knows, being overweight increases the risk of Covid-19, so now is the time for him to front a war on obesity

That Shakespearean moment when the pandemic peaked just as the prime minister gasped for air in ICU has passed. The body politic did not die. But it is knackered, bloated, unhealthy still. Boris Johnson, somehow shrunken yet puffy as he goes jogging, does not look well. Neither does Britain.

The virus can be tamped down but may return to pick off the vulnerable for years. The country must be better prepared and so must each of us. Many factors which reduce survival chances — age, sex or respiratory illnesses — are immutable.

But we can change our weight. The prime minister believes he suffered more because he’s not a “thinnie” but a man of 17 stone, who has long battled to keep his belt